Do you know how many visitors come to your website then leave without you ever knowing they were there? Chances are you probably don't. But if you don't know who's been to your site, how can you know who you've lost? Great question. But the real question you need to answer is, What is my lead capture strategy? If you can't answer that, it's likely you're neglecting the most vital piece of your online marketing efforts.
Ask yourself, "How do I currently market my practice? Do I market through seminars, radio, social media?" There are lots of different ways to market yourself. However, most advisors waste the majority of their marketing budget and are missing out on a huge number of leads and opportunities simply because they don't have a lead capture strategy.
What happens when a prospect visits your website? Do they know where to go and what to do? Do you have a plan for engaging them? Or like most advisors, are you still just throwing up as much as you can on your home page in hopes that they'll see something that catches their eye and moves them to call to come meet with you?
Mistakes
If you operate with the belief that prospects visit websites and then the next step is to call you, you're sadly mistaken. Most people visit websites to do research and homework. That being the case, it's imperative that you grab their attention right away and that your website "speak" to what it is they are looking for, information. But just posting information to be seen and read by anyone who stumbles onto your site isn't enough. This is another huge mistake advisors make: giving away all of their information and asking for nothing in return. What you need is a lead capture element.
You may be asking yourself, "What does lead capture look like?" Often times, it's simply a Call To Action (CTA). If you don't tell prospects what to do, they will do nothing.
A proven lead capture strategy is to prominently display a resource of some kind, be it a report or a video, but something of interest based on the information they are likely looking for. Accompanying this resource should be a button on your webpage (links don't work as well) instructing your visitors how to access it. Something like "Click Here" or "Access Here." Once they click, it should take them to a short form to complete in order to access the information. Again this may be a white paper, video, audio podcast, special spreadsheet – whatever will add true value to the prospect.
